Keeper of Stories
by MidnightCootie
Summary: Ryo wakes up on a beach somewhere, without any clue where, or who, he was. He soon discovers he is a godlike creature known as a "Keeper", whose job it is to watch over and manage an aspect of the world. Ryo is the Keeper of Stories, and must travel the lands recording and assisting great stories and their heroes.


A black Krawk woke up in the middle of the night on a beach. He had no idea how he had gotten there, or who he was. All he could remember was something like a name... "Ryo". He wasn't sure if it was his own, but it was all he could recall. He moved his aching head to the side, rubbing his head and brushing the dirt out of his deep purple crest, and saw a jawless skull half-buried in the sand.

Slowly, Ryo sat up and dug the skull out of the ground. Brushing the sand off it, he saw that the outside was painted with blood-red designs. Curious, he ran his clawed fingers across the paint, discovering that they were slightly indented into the skull. Ryo turned the skull upside down and looked inside. It was perfectly smooth, and looked like it would fit on his face like a mask. Unable to resist, he set the skull onto his. It fit perfectly.

Suddenly, a stream of whispering voices swirled around Ryo, startling him into ripping the mask off his face. He sat, staring at it in dumb astonishment. Ryo turned and set the skull on the sand to his left. While doing so, he noticed a "V" shaped dark green band on his upper left arm. He grew a little nervous about the band, thinking that it may have some connection to the whispering skull. Ryo began to work the band down his arm. As soon as it went over his hand, there was a bright flash, and he suddenly wasn't on the beach anymore.

Ryo whipped his aching head around, taking in the new surroundings. The murky sky was a dirty, toxic yellow. All around him were burping volcanoes and ugly, twisted plants. Off in the distance, he saw a large, four-legged creature slinking across a hill. Ryo began to slide backwards across the hard, rocky dirt.

The thing looked over at him.

From the light of the murky sun (or were there two? _Two_ suns?) he saw the creature had a stout beak with teeth-like points. The creature's face was mostly covered by greasy hair, but as it swung its head, he saw that it had two eyes on each side. Four eyes total. All were small, with cat-eye pupils that seemed to pierce right into his soul. The creature emitted a low squawking sound that sounded like multiple voices at once. Two appendages that were tucked up against its side that Ryo was previously unable to see unfolded. At first he thought they were wings, but instead they turned out to be something like arms. The creature put these overly large "arms" down on the ground and lifted up on them, its normal front legs curling up to its belly. The creature swayed slightly back and forth, emitting unnatural chirping sounds and waving its long, spiked tail across the ground. It looked ready to charge.

Panicked, Ryo quickly shoved his hand back into the green band, and immediately he was back on the beach, a few feet away from where he had been before the had gone to that death trap. Unnerved, Ryo worked the band back up to where it originally was on his upper arm.

Ryo nervously looked around to see if there were any other strange objects around. At first there was nothing, but then he saw a strange blue glow coming from under the sand a little down the beach. He crawled over, still aching all over, and dug. He unearthed a twisted wood rod. As he pulled it out, the glow followed, and at the end of the staff the wood forked out, then back in to a point, forming a diamond-shaped hole. Inside that space floated a glowing blue round object. He reached out to touch it, but he couldn't seem to get his fingers to go any closer than a couple inches of it.

He felt a strange tingling in his eyes, and he reached up to rub them. Just before his hands reached his eyes, he noticed another strange blue glow being projected onto them. _His eyes._ His eyes were glowing! Now he was thoroughly freaked out.

Slowly, Ryo stood up. His legs were weak and wobbly, and he felt like he had done a very intense workout the day before. Oh, he was sore! Still unnerved by the objects but not wanting to leave them there on the beach, Ryo picked up the glowing staff and the whispering skull and began to wander inland, searching for a town or village where he could find out where he was.


End file.
